The Poison of the Perfect Flower
by Is That Rhetorical
Summary: What happens when the Mary Sues start to affect the Naruto world? This! Rated for grapic descriptions of wounded persons.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello all you people who found this only because it happened to be within the first page of new stories on under the Naruto section. And hello to all the people who are reading this because I'm under their favorite authors, which is probably only Vertigo Showgirl. Either way, hi! This is Littlekittyshaomao and this is my first fanfiction that is up on the site, the countless others that I have written being tucked away in my computer somewhere, never to emerge because most of them have been subjected to my harsh criticism. But anyway, that's many long stories that you don't need or want to hear.**

**Now, for the big question that has been haunting us all: What is this? This is what happens when Splat gets bored during Annie Jr. rehearsal and needs something to write. And this has been sitting in my notebook for about three months now, and is finally making its way tentatively to my computer. And here it is! **

**Disclaimer: I own nothing! Only the concept for this fanfiction is mine. The rest of it (including Neji sob) belongs to Japanese people with names that I cannot spell. **

**Parts one and two are dedicated to no one, part three is dedicated to Neji, my love (sorry for the pun in the chapter title there, with the whole flowers thing, it was too tempting), part four is to no one, and part five is to Emma, aka Vertigo Showgirl.**

'**Text' is Sue fanfiction**

**The Poison of the Perfect Flower, Section One**

**Prologue Type Thing; The Sprout of Poison**

Once, Naruto fanfiction was decent. Plots existed, and the Sues were few and far between. Relationships made sense.

But one day, a monster was created. It was the population of Suethors. Gasphorrorshock!

Suddenly Sue fictions started appearing at a rapid rate. Their level of impeccable beauty, strength and all together perfect ness, increased devastatingly.

This affected the canon characters as well. As time went by, the more often they had Sue fictions written about them, the more lasting the effects, and the more horrifying. And it was on one such occasions that out story begins.

**Part One; Finding a Bluebell**

Sakura stood in the middle of a field, thinking absently. She thought of her days in the academy, and how different it was really being a ninja. After all, she couldn't keep her hair, her long hair that she had fatefully grown and washed for Sasuke.

_Sasuke-kun _she thought. _I wonder where Sasuke-kun is now. _She began to wander toward the edge of the field.

She heard faintly a noise from the bushes on the opposite side of the field. She heard it again, and could distinguish that it was a groan of pain. She turned to face the area where it had come from. From the bushes reached something that looked like a hand. There was a dark liquid running over it. Sakura knew it was blood.

She started to run in the direction of the hand. _Who could it be? _she wondered. _And are they from Konoha? _

Reaching the brush, she peered through the gaps in the leaves to see... "Sasuke-kun!" she breathed. True enough, it was him, although he was almost beyond recognition. Blood trickled from odd gashes on his face and arms that were coated in pus from infection. Around them it was swollen in the shapes of hands and lips, human hands and lips.

"S-Sakura," he stammered. When he spoke more blood dribble down into his mouth. "Sakura, help me." Her first instinct was to go over to him, to yell for help, to cradle him in her arms and tell him she was there for him. She almost did.

But then she remembered the genjutsu that Kakashi-sensei had used on her. Someone in the village was an enemy who had conjured up this image of Sasuke to make her faint. It didn't make much sense, but Sakura was sure that was what had happened.

Then Sasuke spoke again. "P-Please Sakura." She stopped walking away and turned to face him again. "Please, it was one of th-theirs." She gasped. That was code. Code for a Sue fanfiction. Only the real Sasuke would know about that, she was sure.

"Sasuke-kun!" She rushed back over to him and lifted him into her lap. It was hard to look at his face for it was red and swollen, his pale skin raised up awkwardly. "Sasuke-kun, I'm so sorry! I'll go to get help, alright? So you just stay here and wait for me to get back." She knew she was rambling. There was no way that he could get up in his condition.

"No, don't go," he whispered feebly. "Please, don't let them take me back. I don't want to go with them."

"I know Sasuke-kun," she said soothingly, stroking his hair. "But I have to go get someone. You can't just stay here." He nodded slightly, then his eyes closed and his head fell back.

Panicking, she tried to remember the first aid class back in the academy. _Check for a pulse on the neck or wrist, _it echoed in her head. Carefully, she touched two fingers to his wrist where it was clear of blood. His heart was beating slowly. She set him down gently and got up.

"Forgive me Sasuke-kun," she said softly to no one. Then she took off in the direction of town, leaving her teammate lying in the grass.

**Part Two; Fetching a Jonquil**

Sakura ran through the streets of the village. They were nearly empty, as the sun was almost finished setting, casting a orange-red glow over the village. On a normal night, Sakura would have thought it wonderfully romantic and sweet.

But she couldn't think that now. Not with her teammate in danger. Especially not Sasuke.

Running to the stairs to the Hokages office, she saw Naruto waiting in front of the door already. He was banging on it, yelling in an obnoxiously loud voice, "Hey, Tsunade no Baa-chan! Let me in! Let me in!"

When Sakura began climbing the stairs, Shizune had opened it and began to tell him off. "Naruto-kun, you can't just come up here asking to see Tsunade-sama whenever you want. She is very busy tonight and..."

"Yeah, yeah, I know. But Tsunade no Baa-chan's a medical ninja, right?"

Shizune looked surprised. "Yes, medical work is Tsunade-sama's specialty. Why?"

Sakura stopped on the stairs. _Why on earth is Naruto asking for a medical ninja? _She walked up the stairs more to hear what was being said.

"You see, Shizune-nee-chan, there's this weird stuff that started happening to all the guys. We're all getting red things." He pulled up his sleeve. On his arm was one of the same sores that were all over Sasuke's body. This one was also shaped like a hand.

"See, see, Shizune-nee-chan! They all look like hands, only some of them like Kiba's look like lips too. And, and yesterday one of Sasuke's started bleeding and it got all orange." His eyes were wide with a strange emotion. Fear. Although it was not for himself, it was still odd for Sakura to see it on his face. "What should we do, Shizune-nee-chan?"

He moved in closer to her, forcing her to back up into the door way. She walked right into Tsunade. "Shizune!" she said in her loud, intimidating voice. "What's going on here?"

Before Shizune could report, Naruto interrupted. "Tsunade no Baa-chan! The guys need your medical ninjutsu stuff!"

Then Sakura felt she needed to say something, for Sasuke's benefit. "Tsunade-sama! Sasuke-kun it out in the field on the edge of town and he's hurt! We have to get to him soon or he'll die!"

Both of their outbursts cause Tsunade to groan in frustration. "Can both of you shut up!"

Sakura shrank back sensibly, but Naruto protested. "But Tsunade no Baa-chan...!"

The Hokage cut him off with her voice, seeming to tower over him as she yelled, "I SAID SHUT UP!!!!"

Naruto backed into the corner quickly, crouching near the edge of the rail and muttering something that sounded like, "Scary, scary, scary, scary, scary!"

Tsunade inhaled deeply to calm herself, and then turned to Sakura. "Now, what did you say about Sasuke?" she asked.

"Please Tsunade-sama! Sasuke-kun's injured out on the field! You have to help him!" She could feel tears rising to her eyes even though she was trying her best not to cry. "We have to get to him soon or he'll die!"

The Fifth Hokage sighed and muttered something like, "Just when I thought I was done for the day," but she quickly became more serious. "Shizune! I want you to go with Naruto and Sakura to Sasuke and treat his wounds as best you can until I can get there with a medical squad to take him to the hospital. Once we get him there, we can find out more about what's happening to our male ninja."

Shizune nodded obediently. Then she gestured for Sakura to take the lead.

**Part Three; Seeing an Iris**

_Neji-nii-san sure has been acting strange recently, _Hinata thought. She looked back at her cousin would had just passed her in the hall.

The bandages that he had worn for as long as she could remember were no longer exclusively wrapped around the right side of his body; there were some wrapped around his left arm and one around his jaw and neck too. _But there's something else too, _she said inside her head. _Something else... _Then she saw it.

Neji had staggered and stopped for a brief moment. It was only momentary, so much that at first she doubted that it had actually happened. But it flashed through her mind again and again until she was nothing short of positive. _Yes, there is definitely something wrong with Neji-nii-san. I should tell father, and he can do something about it. _Hinata told herself.

_But, maybe I can see for myself, just to make sure, first. _She concentrated and muttered, "Byakugan!" the world rippling into clearer view.

When she saw Neji's body, she almost gasped aloud. Underneath his clothes and the bandages were large spots that were swollen and looked like human hands and lips. She looked closer and found that some of them were actually open wounds.

Her eyes slowly made their way up his body. When they reached near his head, she could see a sheet of paper floating above him. It appeared that someone was writing on it, very slowly. She looked harder until it was at the point where she could read what the person was writing. She looked at the words.

'Neji pressed himself close to her, her hands on his chest...'

Hinata stopped reading and let her Byakugan fade as the real Neji cried out in pain, crumpling to the floor like a limp rag. She ran over to where he lied on his back and knelt beside him.

"Neji-nii-san, are you all right?" she asked. She placed her hand on his shoulder and tried to comfort him.

His face was tense, stiff in pain. "Hinata-sama," he gasped. He didn't look at her; instead he stared at the ceiling. "The author started writing," he said quickly. Then he closed his eyes and moved his head sharply to face her.

"You mean the paper that was above your head?"

"Yes." He turned his head back to face the ceiling and bit down, hard. Hinata saw something soaking through his sweater.

Searching franticly through her pockets for something to help him, she found only the rest of the ointment she had given to Naruto during the preliminary matches during the Chûnin Exam. She took it out, opened it and placed it carefully on the floor next to her.

She undid the straps that held Neji's sweater together to expose his chest. Then she dipped two fingers in the ointment, rubbing it over the sores. His head snapped back and forth involuntarily as she did so.

When she finished, she closed his shirt back up and sat by him, comforting him as best she could.

**Part Four; Chamomile Treatment**

Sakura ran as fast as she could make herself, retracing her steps to the exact spot she had come from at the same time. _We have to get to Sasuke-kun as fast as we can,_ she told herself when her stamina wavered in order to keep one foot in front of the other.

"Sakura-chan," Naruto said suddenly. "Sakura-chan, what exactly is wrong with Sasuke?"

"I-I don't really know," she said quietly, almost a whisper. "All I know is that he's covered in sores, and he's bleeding a lot. Besides that, I'm really not sure. He said it had something to do with, well, with them."

Behind her, she heard him whisper, "Shizune-nee-chan, what are sores? And who are they?"

Sakura was the first one to reach the brush area where she had found Sasuke. Even before she saw his bloody form, she had located him from his loud tortured screams. He had regained consciousness.

Although she knew what Sasuke's original condition was, she still gasped in horror when she saw him. Naruto stood frozen in front of him. "What the hell happened?" he whispered. Sakura could only shake her head in disbelief.

Sasuke lied on the ground in front of them, getting his breath back from screaming. He was gasping in pain. His blue shirt looked black from the blood it was soaked in, clinging to his skin. His face was coated in blood, cracked pieces making his skin look like a broken vase.

Shizune was the first one to speak, not being quite as shocked as the younger ninja. "Sakura, I need you to remove Sasuke-kun's shirt so I can see how bad it is underneath, alright?" Sakura only nodded.

Removing his shirt was not an easy task. The fabric stuck to his skin in the partially dried sections, making it difficult to lift it up. Every inch caused Sasuke pain, and when his groaned, Sakura flinched at the pitiful noise coming from him.

It took about fifteen minutes to get his shirt loose enough to slip over his head. When Sakura did so, she almost threw up.

His chest was completely covered in the same gashes and sores on his arms and face, only worse. The ones on his face only oozed slowly, but these spurted blood whenever he took a breath. The pus added a rotting stench, making the whole scene quite repulsing.

Shizune held her hands above him in silence, allowing her chakara to flow into him and mended the broken skin. The process was slow, but it worked and the wounds healed slightly so they were no longer open.

Naruto tapped her on the shoulder without looking away from Sasuke's body. "Sakura-chan, is that going to happen to all the guys in the village? Only yesterday Sasuke only had a few of those things, but now..." He shook his head.

Sakura sighed, not taking her eyes off Sasuke either. "I don't know, Naruto. I just don't know."

**Part Five; Hearing Dianthus**

It was the middle of the night when Temari first heard the noise. It was the sound of a scream, one that she knew all too well. A scream that sounded like a combination of a low growl and a scream. It was her little brother, Gaara.

The thing that was unclear was why he had screamed. Temari went through the possibilities in her head. The assassination attempts had stopped after the Chûnin Exams, and they had never even laid a scratch on Gaara.

After she discarded several other unlikely possibilities, she reached the one she had been dreading to even think about. Shukaku. She didn't want to think about it, but she grabbed her fan just in case. _God I hope that didn't happen,_ she thought as she ran down the hall.

When she stopped in front of Gaara's room, her heart was racing and her palms and face were covered in a cold sweat. Her grip tightened around the cool wooden handle of the fan, it almost slipping out of her moist hand.

She opened the door slowly, so agonizingly slowly. She wanted to run in the opposite direction, wanted to run from Gaara. But she couldn't. She needed to see what happened.

She peered inside the room. There was no sand. There was no Shukaku. She only saw Gaara's legs beneath the table, the rest of him obscured from the angle she was at.

Temari sighed with relief. "Gaara, please don't scare me like that!" she said. "For a second there, I thought the Shukaku came out and... Gaara?"

She crouched on the floor to see the rest of him. Dark read blood, the same color as his hair, pooled from an odd swollen gash on his face. His left hand gripped the table leg and his right hand was pressed over the wound. His steady scream filled the otherwise silent air as more blood ran onto the floor.

Temari knelt beside him hesitantly, afraid to move him. She did anyway. Still no sand and still no Shukaku. Only more of his screams, more blood, and more pain.

From a gash on his chest much like the one on his face more blood flowed, turning his burgundy clothes even darker, almost black.

She pulled him close to her, resting him in her lap in what she hoped was a sisterly way. Gently placing a hand over as much of his bleeding chest as she could, she asked, "Gaara, what did this to you?" He only shook his head, causing more blood to dribble down his face.

Temari tried to be more direct, and asked, "Did you kill them?" Another no. She was shocked. _Gaara didn't kill what attacked him? _She wondered. _But then, if they were skilled enough to inflict this kind of damage beyond both of his defenses, it makes sense that they would be able to get away._

_But I didn't hear anything happen. The room is perfectly normal looking. If I didn't know better, I'd say that Gaara just fell to the floor and started bleeding. But then, that doesn't make any sense either. So what happened to him? _

**And there you have it, there you are, there you go. Hurrah for the first chapter of this thing-a-ma-jig we have here. No flames about blood please. Or descriptions of open wounds. I warned you, didn't I? **

**Oh well. Those who would like to review, go ahead. If you don't, also go ahead. And see you next time for the next five part special of, 'The Poison of the Perfect Flower'! Only not really.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello again. Since you already know who I am (unless you skipped the first chapter for some odd reason), I'm not really going to say anything, except congratulations to kaotic312 for being my first reviewer. Don't be jealous, Vertigo Showgirl. After that, I'm just going to say, 'Hooray, second and final chapter' and then get on to the disclaimer. There it is!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing! I know, so heart breaking. **

**Part six is to Nhi, although Shino is not involved, part seven is up for grabs, part eight is for Emma because she labeled it 'emo-tastic', nine is to her too because during that chapter, she became my self proclaimed 'teh spellchecker of DOOM!' (Insert funky eyeballs in the Os of DOOM), and part ten is just kind of there to wrap things up and give you your daily dose of fluff if you find parts eight and nine are not satisfactory.**

**Part Six; Bleeding Roots of Bleeding Hearts**

"Akamaru!" Kiba shouted at his dog. "Stop running away from me! Akamaru!" He glared at the little white form running in the opposite direction, and then began to get up.

He grimaced at the pain that came shooting from his legs as he started to run. Unfortunately, he only got a few meters before his legs gave in. "Damn," he said to himself, and then shouted at Akamaru one more time. "Akamaru, get the hell back here!" The little dog made no move to oblige.

He punched the ground in frustration, sending little needles of pain up into his shoulder. He tried to ignore it and lied down of the grass. It hurt to do that too.

"Damn," he muttered again. "First this weird pain and now Akamaru." Suddenly, he heard something. It wasn't from anyone on the field; it bounced around inside his skull, echoing. It was the voice of someone female.

'Her purple eyes sparkled at him, her short black hair reflected rainbow-colored light...'

_Hinata? _he wondered vaguely, still trying to hear the voice.

'Sakura whispered to him, "I love you Kiba," before she kissed him.'

"But, Sakura's hair is pink, not bla-." He cut himself off as a burning sensation rose to his mouth. All around his lips and inside of his mouth stung. His hand flew to his mouth. When he pulled it away, it was covered in blood. "What is happening to me?" he asked the ground. "What the hell is going on!?"

Then, as if to mock him, the voice started up again. 'Well I hope you all liked that little chappie.' (AN: Not sure how to spell that, I don't speak happy author.) 'It took long enough, don't you think? I mean, Sakura came in three whole chapters ago. But I didn't want to rush it and make her seem like a Mary Sue. I just found out what those are, and I don't want to write one. Anyway, see you next chapter!'

_A book, _Kiba thought, spitting out a little more blood from his mouth. _Someone is writing a book about me and some girl who looks like Hinata and named Sakura. _

_But that doesn't explain why my mouth bled when that Sakura girl kissed me in the story. _He sat back on the ground, thinking.

After a few minutes, he smelled someone familiar. "Hinata!" he yelled in the direction of her smell.

"Kiba-kun," she said, panting slightly as she ran up the hill. He smiled, little streams of blood trickling down from his mouth. She gasped, then composed herself and spoke.

"Kiba-kun, Tsunade-sama wants all of the boys to report to her office right away. It's an emergency."

He growled in an animal like manner and muttered, "Damn." Then he laughed. "I guess you girls caught on to what's been going on. Oh, well, I guess it's for the best. Now where is the Hokage?"

Hinata seemed slightly surprised, but she said, "At her office, but she's taking all the boys to the hospital." He nodded and she helped him up. Then they started walking to the Hokage's office.

**Part Seven; Bluebells Endangered **

Sakura waited outside of Sasuke's hospital room, holding onto the seat and the orange lily she had bought for him and playing with her hair. It had been hours since they had brought Sasuke to the hospital and he had entered the emergency room, and she still didn't know anything about what condition he was in.

After the first ten minutes of waiting, she had become hysterical, running about the hallway, asking anyone and everyone she could about him. She had done that for about an hour, and after that she settled for sitting outside his room and developing nervous habits. It was the best way for her to pass the minutes that felt like hours, the hours that felt like days, waiting.

Finally, someone came out of the emergency room. It was a medical ninja, dressed in white. Sakura realized she had been clinging to the seat and let go in embarrassment. Before he could speak, she jumped up and half yelled, half asked, "What's Sasuke-kun's condition?"

The ninja looked a bit startled at her outburst, but then he said in an indifferent tone, "We are doing all we can for Uchiha Sasuke. He is currently in critical condition and is under intensive care. We understand that you are Sasuke's close friend and teammate, so we will allow you to visit him for five minutes, but no more."

Sakura wanted to scream at him and ask him who 'they' were to allow her only five minutes to see her friend. She wanted to criticize him through tears for using such a calm monotone to tell her about the man she loved. But she didn't. Instead she calmly followed him into the room, afraid of what she might see, but not enough to make her turn the other way.

The door opened, leading her into a dull room, the shades of gray suffocating her orange flower.

She saw Tsunade and Shizune in the corner. They looked sweaty, worn out, and defeated. Her heart raced faster and faster until it got to the point that she feared it would leap out of her chest and run away from her. She dared a glance at the body on the bed where about five medical ninja were gathered around.

When she saw him, she thought that she might pass out. Then she would be taken to a room of her own on the other side of the hospital where all the other minor cases were. She would stay in bed until she came around, and then she would be sent on her merry way. But she didn't pass out. She could only stare at him as tears rose to her eyes.

Sasuke was surrounded by the medical ninja, all of them trying to heal the sores on his body as soon as they appeared. But they weren't fast enough to heal them all. _They'll never be fast enough, _she realized. Tears began spilling over her eye lids. _He'll get worse and worse and... Sasuke-kun will die. _The hot liquid ran down her face. She closed her eyes and more fell onto the orange flower.

They wouldn't stop. Not as she turned around and ran out of the hospital blindly. Not as she ran past the places that she had talked with him, not as she ran to the bridge and let them fall into the river.

**Part Eight; Heart Healing Violets**

_I can do this, _Hinata thought. _All I have to do is tell Naruto-kun that he has to report to Tsunade-sama. I can do this. _

Naruto was out in the middle of the training ground standing in front of the centered wooden pole. He had removed his sweatshirt, and his right hand was placed on the pole. Hinata turned slightly and saw his face. His eyes were closed and his mouth was opened, revealing bared teeth, giving him an animal like appearance.

"Go away, Hinata!" he yelled all of the sudden.

She almost walked away, but she stopped herself. "Tsunade-sama wanted me to make sure that you got your message from Chouji-kun and..."

"Yeah, I got the damn message," he said angrily.

_Why is Naruto-kun acting this way? _she wondered. _Usually, he's so nice and friendly, he always laughs and smiles. I wonder what's making him like this. Maybe I should just ask him..._

She swallowed nervously, and then asked in a small voice, "Naruto-kun, what's wrong? You're not normally like this, and..." Her voice faded away as small drops of rain started falling.

Naruto opened his eyes, but didn't look at her. His mouth trembled with anger, his teeth quivering as though he wanted to yell something, but he didn't. He dropped his gaze to the ground and his face took on a softer expression. "No one's going to get better, are they?"

"Of course they are Naruto-kun," Hinata said, finding her voice to be louder than usual. "All the medical ninja are doing their best to help and..."

"But their best isn't good enough," he whispered. He looked up at her, his blue eyes showing the pain his face didn't. "I always believe that you can do anything with hard work, but this isn't something like that, is it? When things happen to your body, you can fight against it for as long as you want, but it still hurts in the end. No matter how hard you try to get rid of the wounds, the scars are always there. You can fight against your fate, you can fight against people who put you down, but you can't fight against yourself. When your body says it's over, it's over."

"Naruto-kun, what are you saying?"

"I'm saying that Sasuke's going to die." She saw tears starting to form in his eyes, and she watched as liquid streamed down his face, although she couldn't tell if it was the rain or the tears. "Sasuke's going to die and there's nothing he can do. Nothing any of us can do. And then the same thing will happen to us, every one of us that has the things now is going to look like Sasuke by tomorrow." He swung his fist at the pole, splintering the wood. He muttered, "Sakura-chan."

Hinata could only look at him in shock, watching one of the sores on his opposite hand bleed, oozing fresh blood that fell onto the soaked ground. She took a step forward and shook her head to blink away the tears that threatened to roll down her cheeks. "What are you talking about, Naruto-kun? Everything will be fine, you'll see."

She felt the heavy rain fall onto her head as she continued. "Everyone won't die! We'll find some way to help them; we just have to try harder!"

"How do you know?" he yelled at her. The rain was soaking his shirt, making it even blacker, something you could fall into. "You don't know anything! You didn't see what Sasuke looked like last night, you don't know!"

"Please stop!" Hinata cried desperately. She ran forward so that she was almost nose to nose with him. She grabbed his bleeding left hand, forcing her cheeks to stay pale as blood rushed to her face as she touched his bare skin. "Naruto-kun, please don't say things like that! Please!

"I know it may seem like I don't know anything about what's happening to you. It's true that I haven't seen Sasuke-kun yet, and I don't know how bad you can get." She felt her voice rising involuntarily. "But please don't give up!

"When you fought Kiba-kun in the preliminary matches, you never gave up, even when you were hurt! And you didn't give up when you fought Neji-nii-san either! So you can't just give up now!" Having said what she needed to say, her voice fell back into its normal volume. "That's why I like you so much, Naruto-kun."

He stared over her shoulder, looking at nothing, his mouth open slightly. Then he nodded. "You're right, Hinata. I can't just give up! I'm gonna find away to save Sasuke, even if I'm not a medical ninja!

Hinata smiled in relief. Then she remembered that she was still holding his hand. She let go quickly and said softly, "I'm sorry if that hurt you, Naruto-kun."

But Naruto only looked at his hand, a small smile spreading across his face until it became a wide grin. He lifted his hand for her to look at and said, "Hinata! Look what happened when you touched that thing on my hand!" She looked. The redness had subsided in the places that her hands had touched, leaving clean and unbroken skin.

She reached out and touched her middle and forefingers to a swollen spot on his wrist. With a hiss, the wound steamed away, faster than even the chakara of the Kyubi could have healed it.

"Do you know what this means, Hinata?" He didn't wait for an answer. "It means that we've found a way to save everyone! You're a genius, Hinata!" he told her ecstatically, and then leaned over and hugged her.

_Naruto-kun, _she thought, feeling her face turn tomato red. _Naruto-kun is hugging me! What should I do? Should I hug him back? What should I do what should I do? _

**Part Nine: Enough Violets for All**

"It's no use, Naruto-kun," Hinata, her hands pressed against Kiba's arm. They stood in front of Tsunade. "It just won't work the same with Kiba-kun."

Naruto looked at the ground with the same defeated look that he wore earlier. "Maybe we didn't find a cure. Maybe we just got lucky."

_I hate seeing Naruto-kun like that, _Hinata thought. _He's not the same when he gets like that. I have to do something to cheer him up. _"Naruto-kun, don't worry. We'll find a way to make it work for everyone else too..." Her voice drifted off as she felt someone tap her shoulder. It was a girl, about their age with dark brown, almost black hair that reached her shoulders, hanging in little waves around her face.

"I want to try and cure Kiba," she said in a sassy voice.

Hinata stepped back and let the girl touch her teammate's arm. The sore she touched healed in a few seconds, leaving a hissing trail of steam.

Naruto looked at her in amazement. "How did you do that?" he asked, returning to his normal, hyper self.

"It was easy," she said with an attitude. "All I had to do was think about how much I like Kiba, and then he was healed. Just like that." She snapped her fingers to indicate 'just like that'.

"Wait, you like me?" Kiba asked her. When he nodded, he muttered, "That explains the stalking."

As Kiba and his newfound girlfriend walked away, Tsunade put one of her hands on Naruto's shoulder and one on Hinata's. "It seems that you two have found the cure. I'll congratulate you properly when this crisis is over. For now, you can go." She then hurried off to do something else.

"So all we have to do now is get all the girls together with the guys they like, and they can heal them, right, Hinata?"

She nodded without really knowing what he said, thinking, _So I'm the only one who could save Naruto-kun. _

"But I have one question, Hinata." She snapped back to the hallway in the hospital to hear what he wanted to ask her. "Since you healed me, does that mean that you like me?"

Hinata glanced down, her eyes moving quickly across the floor as though it held the correct answer. It didn't, so she said, "Yes, if it's all right with you, N-Naruto-kun. I like you a lot."

He grinned one of his big toothy grins, the kind that she loved, and walked up beside her and placed his arm around her shoulders. "Of course it's okay with me! After all, you saved me, Hinata-chan."

_Naruto-kun, called me Hinata-chan! _she thought, feeling lighter than before. _He must really like me! He actually likes me, enough to call me Hinata-chan! _"D-does that mean that we're, that we're..." She tapped her two forefingers together, searching for the right word. When she found none, she slowly lifted her left pinky.

Naruto seemed a bit surprised at the questioning gesture and Hinata immediately regretted asking. But then he smiled and said, "Of course Hinata-chan! As long as that's what you want too!"

Hinata nodded a few times, hardly able to believe her luck. _Not only does Naruto-kun like me, but he said he wants to be my boyfriend! _She looked up at the sky as they walked out the door. The rain clouds were parting, leaving a light drizzle still falling. A rainbow was starting to form in a picture-esque spot over the mountains. _Can this day get any better?_

**Part Ten; Rarer Than an Orange Lily**

"Sakura!" called a voice that she knew so well. She looked up from the river where she had been crying to see Ino running towards her with Shikamaru in tow. "Forehead girl! We have a message for you!"

"And judging from your face, I don't think you've got it from anyone else yet," Shikamaru said in his slow and bored voice.

"What message?" she asked, thoroughly confused.

"It was too troublesome to remember. Ino, you tell her." He looked at her with something Sakura had never seen him look at anyone else with. She realized it was affection.

Ino stuck out her tongue at him playfully before she put her hands on her hips. "Well, forehead girl, Tsunade-sama says she needs you to cure Sasuke-kun, seeing as you like him and all.

Sakura looked at her rival's face. Ino wasn't making any sense. She hid her confusion with an attitude. "So you realized that you can never have Sasuke-kun? You've given up?"

Ino gave a little snort. "As if. I've just found that I like someone else, someone way better than that cold-hearted jerk."

"Really? Who?" she asked, upholding the fake tone.

"Are you blind? Maybe your huge forehead is blocking your view. Let me clear things up for you." She wrapped her arms around Shikamaru's neck, which, to Sakura's surprise, didn't move to throw her off. "Shikamaru and I are together now. I cured him, so he asked me out. Just this morning, too."

"Geez Ino, do you have to tell the whole village within the hour? You make it sound like we're engaged or something. Everyone will be coming to congratulate us and it'll be..."

"So troublesome, I know." She rolled her eyes at her boyfriend. "But can't I brag about you, just a little?" she asked, pouting her lips slightly. He sighed, not wanting to argue, and she gave him a light kiss on his cheek.

"So anyway, Tsunade-sama says that Naruto and Hinata figured out that the only way to cure the boys that have the weird sores is for the girls that like them to touch the infection and it will heal. She's figured out that it's the... or, they're causing them, by touching the boys in their stories." She shuddered. "Just the thought of having one of those sluts hanging all over Shikamaru, it makes me want to puke. And poor Shika had some pretty bad ones too..."

"Ino, don't call me that."

"Fine! But you should get to the hospital now; Tsunade-sama told us that you needed to get there as soon as possible. I guess Sasuke-kun's got them pretty bad."

_Sasuke-kun, _she thought as she started running toward the hospital. "Thank you!" she yelled back quickly, remembering her manners.

She kidded into the hospital, ran up the stairs to the room she'd committed to memory and burst inside, the lily for Sasuke still in her hand, as she had never let go.

Tsunade didn't respond to the doors opening, and for a moment Sakura stood in the middle of the room, confused. The fifth Hokage stood in the corner, looking about ten years older than she normally did, placing her appearance at about thirty.

"Good, you're here, Sakura." She walked away from the dark corner and beckoned for her to follow. "Sasuke's been giving us a fair bit of trouble. Apparently, he has the most Mary Sues out of all the men and boys in the village. I can assume that you've been told what to do?"

"Not exactly, but I picked it up from what Ino said, and what do you mean, Sasuke-kun's been giving you trouble?"

"I'll get right to it," she said as they arrived at his bedside. "Most of the others were completely healed after the girl, or girls, who like them touched the wounds. Sasuke, although he has a lot of girls who claim they like him, wasn't completely healed by any of them. You're the only one of the girls who like him who hasn't tried yet."

Sakura swallowed nervously. She placed a hand on one of the gashes on Sasuke's chest and closed her eyes. She heard a hissing noise coming from his skin and thought, _Oh no, now I've hurt Sasuke-kun! _A few tears leaked out from under her eyelids.

But then Tsunade said, "Good, Sakura. Now heal the rest of him." She opened her eyes and saw a hand shaped mark of healed skin where her hand had been. She ran her fingers along another cut and watched it disappear. Unlike when the medical ninja had been healing him, there was no new wound to take its place.

As more and more of Sasuke was healed, she began feeling hopeful, began to adjust to feeling his skin under her hands. She ran her fingers along his face idly even though she'd already healed him there. _To make sure there aren't any more there, _she told herself.

Suddenly, Shizune gasped from where she was standing on the other side of Sasuke. "Ts-Tsunade-sama," she stuttered in surprise. "There's something terribly wrong!"

"Well, what is it?" When she got no response except the startled look on Shizune's face, she snapped, "Shizune, if there's something wrong, I need to know what it is so that I can fix it. So tell me what is happening to him!"

"There are sores inside his lungs! They're not forming very fast, but we need to do something before he's unable to breathe!"

Tsunade put her head in her hands and started muttering to herself. "If the Mary Sues are causing the sores on his body, then they might be the cause of these too." She paused, and then said quickly, snapping out of her thinking position, "Take him off the ventilator."

"What? But Tsunade-sama, he needs the ventilator, now more than ever!"

"Just do it, Shizune! If the Mary Sues are causing the sores on his body by touching them in their stories, then it must be one of them kissing him in their stories, and that's what's causing the sores in his lungs."

"But what will taking him off the ventilator do to help him?"

"If Sakura can heal the sores on his body by touching them, then who's to say that her kissing him won't heal the sores in his lungs?"

Shizune nodded. The Tsunade turned to Sakura and asked, "Did you pick that up too?" She nodded. "Good. Now, as soon as Shizune's done with that, I want you to kiss him, alright?" Another nod. "Good."

As she leaned over him, thoughts swarmed in Sakura's head. _What if Sasuke-kun hates me after I kiss him, for doing it while he's unconscious? _Her lips touched his, brushing them lightly. _But what will happen if I don't kiss him. He might not be alive to hate me. _She closed her eyes as she realized that this was her first kiss with Sasuke. _I just wish he could be awake for it. _It was then that she realized just how many girls' fantasies she was living, kissing the legendary Uchiha Sasuke, her breath mixing with his.

She began to pull away just as his eyes started fluttering open. His breathing, which had been raspy and pained before, had returned to its steady, rhythmic pattern. She sighed with relief and picked up the lily from the side of his bed, holding it up to her nose so she could smell it.

When Sasuke's eyes were fully open, he turned his head around the room to see who was there. His eyes passed over Shizune and Tsunade and the medical ninja reading his charts until they rested on Sakura. "What did you do?" he asked her. Then he turned to Tsunade and asked, a little more polite, "Who did that?"

Sakura wanted to jump up and down and scream that she did, but she didn't. Instead, she raised her right hand shyly, still holding the lily in her left.

"Why? Why did you kiss me?" he demanded in as threatening a voice as he could muster.

"She did it to save you, Sasuke-kun," Shizune said, scolding him as much as she could, seeing he was her patient.

"You did?" he asked, turning his gaze back up to the ceiling.

Sakura nodded, even though she knew he couldn't see her. She held out the orange flower with both hands like a small child. "It's for you, Sasuke-kun," she told him with a bashful smile.

He turned his head back to look at her and lifted his hand to take the flower from her. On his face was something that you'd see after you found a naturally orange lily. A genuine smile.

**And there it is. The end. You can go home now. Just kidding! Stay if you want and listen to what I have to say. Splat feels so special that she posted her story, and it actually got finished! It's a miracle! Now for the credits.**

**Author: ME! LK**

**Beta/Teh spellchecker of DOOM: Vertigo Showgirl**

**Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto, Shizune, Tsunade, Hyuuga Hinata, Hyuuga Neji, Temari, Gaara, Inazuka Kiba, Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru and Random Medical Ninja as themselves.**

**Up next for being on fanfiction is, "When You're Gone." Sonfic to 'When You're Gone' by Avril Lavigne. **

**See you there! **


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